We are all artists of our own lives. This art of life itself is meant to be shared. Come and share the ramblings of a poet / pastor / prophet ...and ordinary person...

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Why
I am a Christian #2: In my journey in the Christian Faith I have
encountered a love that is much bigger than my own heart. An ocean of
love. What I now know as the true source of all real love. It is a
love that embraces all people everywhere. I first encountered it in my
baptism. Later in what some people call the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
I learned to access it more frequently through a tradition in the
Orthodox Church called "The Jesus Prayer". I found a love that never
leaves me and the wisdom to live in it through a little book called "The
Practice of the Presence of God" by brother Lawrence.

Now
encounters and even God's love for me and everyone else in no way
automatically make me mature enough to love like God loves. But I find I
am stretched a little more in that direction every day.

Ephesians 3:14-21 is a prayer that Christians would enter into and know
the love of God. Immaturity at this point is the cause of a lot of
people having problems with the church. We teach and show people how
much God loves... and then disconnect from it in some way. Still this
love sustains me every day in a grace that calls me to love more deeply
everyone around me... and in the world at large. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians+3%3A14-21&version=NIV

"Love is the only power on earth that can turn an enemy into a friend". Martin Luther King Jr.

Saturday, October 26, 2013

I
am going to start a simple series of posts of "Why I (john tw) am a
Christian". I am not aiming for the popular apologetics that is aimed
at proving the Christian faith is reasonable and evidence based... I
believe others have done that better than I could do. But rather I want
to make explicit some of the gems that I have found in living into my
faith that has made my life the good of what it is and has become.

This is my experience of walking the Christian life out. It is only
possible to experience this kind of life giving grace if one is truly
open and honest enough to face one's personal pain and willing to turn
to God for help.

This grace of inner healing and forgiveness is an experience that is shared around the world by Christians and is essential to the future of our communities. I can not think of a better example of this than what is found in the struggle for healing and justice as expressed in the book -- No Future Without Forgiveness by Bishop Desmond Tutu.